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A Song of Ice and Fire, BOOK AND TV AND ESPECIALLY BOOK SPOILERS INSIDE

#1 rule is no crying about something being spoiled, assuming it's already published material. If you haven't read all the books AND seen every aired show, then you are forbidden from accusing someone else of spoiling something for you. If you're posting an interview with GRRM where he talks about stuff that will happen in Book 6, yeah, that is the very epitome of a spoiler and must be tagged.

#2 rule, less important than #1, is to use your own best judgment and put tags around some things, like maybe details of TRW, or R-L-J theories, or major stuff from Book 5. Definitely anything about a show that hasn't aired (besides what we know from the books), or confirmed plot facts in books not yet published. Someone could very well click this thread by accident instead of the TV one, and they sure has hell don't want to see this in non-tagged form:
(major spoilers from books 3 - 5)

Hey, remember when Robb and Catelyn were killed by the Freys, and Sansa married Tyrion, but then Catelyn came back as an evil zombie and Joff chokes to death and Tyrion murders his father, and Jamie sort of becomes a good guy? That was awesome.

#3 rule is to try to do what I did above and preface your spoiler tags with a very brief description of what kind of spoiler it is and about when it occurs in the series.

Like so. Seriously, if you don't want spoilers, don't read this thread. Stop right now cause below this sentence? Thar be spoilers.

So this is the thread wherein we all talk about how great it'll be when Theon Greyjoy cleverly becomes king of Westeros, shortly preceding Asha's conquest of the world because they are the best ever.

I guess TV shows really have a thing against changing a character's appeareance; it almost never happens. It's the same thing with Jaime. Once he leaves the Starks with Brienne he has a beard and shaves his head as to not be so easily recognized by whoever he may encounter on his travels. In the TV show he still looks the same as he did in the first episode. Also no change to Ned's looks despite spending a reasonable amount of time alone in a dark dungeon cell.

Well Jaime did grow a bit of a beard, but still, I wanted a badass bald Jaime with a big beard!

I guess TV shows really have a thing against changing a character's appeareance; it almost never happens. It's the same thing with Jaime. Once he leaves the Starks with Brienne he has a beard and shaves his head as to not be so easily recognized by whoever he may encounter on his travels. In the TV show he still looks the same as he did in the first episode. Also no change to Ned's looks despite spending a reasonable amount of time alone in a dark dungeon cell.

Well Jaime did grow a bit of a beard, but still, I wanted a badass bald Jaime with a big beard!

That picture is from episode 3, though. So if it's practical (and doesn't look dumb), they have plenty of time to do more.

That's one of the concessions of live action, though. The actor might not be able to grow a big beard.

That and it's a lot easier to distinguish characters in books, especially when a chapter starts out as CHARACTER'S NAME, than it is on a show of thin pretty white people. Once you get a character's look down I could understand the desire not to deviate.

I like the rugged look of Mance, even if he isn't as handsome as described.

The Unsullied are a little different than I expected as well. I thought they had gold/bronze armor. I also pictured their helmets similar to WW1 German "spike" helmets, and less clothing almost 300 like... but I suppose these are more realistic.

Season 1 there's actually a couple guardsmen in ep 1 who pretty much look like straight from the book's description of unsullied.

But this version has some obvious advantages for TV, mostly the covered faces making it easy for them to do shots with lots of extras.

A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.

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FakefauxCóiste BodharDriving John McCain to meet some Iraqis who'd very much like to make his acquaintanceRegistered Userregular

Also, this is rather interesting. I pointed out in the last thread that most of these pictures are tagged with production codes. This picture of Dany is listed as being from Episode 304, IE episode four, season three:

Given the nature of the picture, this seems to suggest Dany gets her army of Unsullied really, really early in the season. What will she be doing for the rest of it?

Also, this is rather interesting. I pointed out in the last thread that most of these pictures are tagged with production codes. This picture of Dany is listed as being from Episode 304, IE episode four, season three:

Given the nature of the picture, this seems to suggest Dany gets her army of Unsullied really, really early in the season. What will she be doing for the rest of it?

She has (in the book) at least two meetings in front of the army. The one where she pretends she doesn't understand the slaver, and then the one with the burning and the screaming. This could be the first one.

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FakefauxCóiste BodharDriving John McCain to meet some Iraqis who'd very much like to make his acquaintanceRegistered Userregular

She has (in the book) at least two meetings in front of the army. The one where she pretends she doesn't understand the slaver, and then the one with the burning and the screaming. This could be the first one.

Ah, that makes sense. So, first half of season three she gets her army, second half she probably conquers Yunkai. Which means season four is just her conquering Mereen, which sounds a little lackluster. Then again, they'll probably want to save the bulk of the season four budget/screentime for Jon's adventures on The Wall.

She has (in the book) at least two meetings in front of the army. The one where she pretends she doesn't understand the slaver, and then the one with the burning and the screaming. This could be the first one.

Ah, that makes sense. So, first half of season three she gets her army, second half she probably conquers Yunkai. Which means season four is just her conquering Mereen, which sounds a little lackluster. Then again, they'll probably want to save the bulk of the season four budget/screentime for Jon's adventures on The Wall.

Dany's season four appearances will largely consist of a quick shot showing her, sitting in Mereen, and someone saying "Are we leaving yet?" and she replies "I am just a young girl and know little of such things. A queen belongs to her people. If I look back, I am lost."
"My queen, you did not answer my question. When are we leaving Mereen to conquer Westeros?"
"I dunno. Just not feelin' it yet."

I've been thinking I should re-read A Feast for Crows, since I don't remember any of it.

But it was so hard to get through the first time.

All I remember is Cercei finally getting her comeuppance, Jamie being awesome, and way too many Brienne chapters.

More like A Feast for BORES.

Maybe just a synopsis then.

As for A Dance With Dragons, I just wish they hadn't gone there with Theon. Graphic depictions of torture and the psychological impact of that torture are not things I enjoy reading about. I need righteous justice (cathartic revenge) brought down upon Ramsay.

Brienne's chapters are pretty amazing on reread. I do get the initial dislike for them, since she's fairly removed from big plot movers, but the stuff in them is actually pretty darn important to explaining asoiaf's whole thing

A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.

“Unless they’re starving,” the septon said. “There is food in these marshes, but only for those with the eyes to find it, and these men are strangers here, survivors from some battle. If they should accost us, ser, I beg you, leave them to me.”

“What will you do with them?”

“Feed them. Ask them to confess their sins, so that I might forgive them. Invite them to come with us to the Quiet Isle.”

“That’s as good as inviting them to slit our throats as we sleep,” Hyle Hunt replied. “Lord Randyll has better ways to deal with broken men—steel and hempen rope.”

“Ser? My lady?” said Podrick. “Is a broken man an outlaw?”

“More or less,” Brienne answered.

Septon Meribald disagreed. “More less than more. There are many sorts of outlaws, just as there are many sorts of birds. A sandpiper and a sea eagle both have wings, but they are not the same. The singers love to sing of good men forced to go outside the law to fight some wicked lord, but most outlaws are more like this ravening Hound than they are the lightning lord. They are evil men, driven by greed, soured by malice, despising the gods and caring only for themselves. Broken men are more deserving of our pity, though they may be just as dangerous. Almost all are common-born, simple folk who had never been more than a mile from the house where they were born until the day some lord came round to take them off to war. Poorly shod and poorly clad, they march away beneath his banners, ofttimes with no better arms than a sickle or a sharpened hoe, or a maul they made themselves by lashing a stone to a stick with strips of hide. Brothers march with brothers, sons with fathers, friends with friends. They’ve heard the songs and stories, so they go off with eager hearts, dreaming of the wonders they will see, of the wealth and glory they will win. War seems a fine adventure, the greatest most of them will ever know.

“Then they get a taste of battle.

“For some, that one taste is enough to break them. Others go on for years, until they lose count of all the battles they have fought in, but even a man who has survived a hundred fights can break in his hundred-and-first. Brothers watch their brothers die, fathers lose their sons, friends see their friends trying to hold their entrails in after they’ve been gutted by an axe.

“They see the lord who led them there cut down, and some other lord shouts that they are his now. They take a wound, and when that’s still half-healed they take another. There is never enough to eat, their shoes fall to pieces from the marching, their clothes are torn and rotting, and half of them are shitting in their breeches from drinking bad water.

“If they want new boots or a warmer cloak or maybe a rusted iron halfhelm, they need to take them from a corpse, and before long they are stealing from the living too, from the smallfolk whose lands they’re fighting in, men very like the men they used to be. They slaughter their sheep and steal their chickens, and from there it’s just a short step to carrying off their daughters too. And one day they look around and realize all their friends and kin are gone, that they are fighting beside strangers beneath a banner that they hardly recognize. They don’t know where they are or how to get back home and the lord they’re fighting for does not know their names, yet here he comes, shouting for them to form up, to make a line with their spears and scythes and sharpened hoes, to stand their ground. And the knights come down on them, faceless men clad all in steel, and the iron thunder of their charge seems to fill the world…

“And the man breaks.

“He turns and runs, or crawls off afterward over the corpses of the slain, or steals away in the black of night, and he finds someplace to hide. All thought of home is gone by then, and kings and lords and gods mean less to him than a haunch of spoiled meat that will let him live another day, or a skin of bad wine that might drown his fear for a few hours. The broken man lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne is not wrong. In times like these, the traveler must beware of broken men, and fear them…but he should pity them as well.”

When Meribald was finished a profound silence fell upon their little band. Brienne could hear the wind rustling through a clump of pussywillows, and farther off the faint cry of a loon. She could hear Dog panting softly as he loped along beside the septon and his donkey, tongue lolling from his mouth. The quiet stretched and stretched, until finally she said, “How old were you when they marched you off to war?”

“Why, no older than your boy,” Meribald replied. “Too young for such, in truth, but my brothers were all going, and I would not be left behind. Willam said I could be his squire, though Will was no knight, only a potboy armed with a kitchen knife he’d stolen from the inn. He died upon the Stepstones, and never struck a blow. It was fever did for him, and for my brother Robin. Owen died from a mace that split his head apart, and his friend Jon Pox was hanged for rape.”

“The War of the Ninepenny Kings?” asked Hyle Hunt.

“So they called it, though I never saw a king, nor earned a penny. It was a war, though. That it was.”

One thing about that passage for me: even though it never mentions the Night Watch, even though we see first hand just how dysfunctional the Night Watch can be, it still manages to paint the Night Watch in a better light. It's filled with the scum of the earth, not just honest farmers carted off unwillingly to war or in the wrong place at the wrong time, but actual rapists and murderers as well. But they do manage discipline, and they do have an institutional pride that the armies of the south don't have.

Also, this is rather interesting. I pointed out in the last thread that most of these pictures are tagged with production codes. This picture of Dany is listed as being from Episode 304, IE episode four, season three:

<snip>

Given the nature of the picture, this seems to suggest Dany gets her army of Unsullied really, really early in the season. What will she be doing for the rest of it?

Nothing, just like the book. Hundreds of pages scenes of her being wishy-washy with occasional action nearby that she never actually sees.